Strength In Numbers
by serahrose
Summary: After fighting, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippo all go their separate ways, but are faced with a common enemy. Can they get over their disagreements and band together to fight off the evil? InuKag, MirSan. R&R please.
1. Dissension in the Ranks

**Disclaimer**: As sad as this is to admit, I don't own Inuyasha. Ohhhh the things I would do if I did (claps hands together and laughs manically).

**A/N**: You'll notice that I tend to take elements from many different areas (for example, the spellings of the character names are from the English dubbed version of the anime, while "Keh" and some of the derogatory names Inuyasha uses, as well as some of the terms like "youkai", "hanyou" and "kitsune"do not). Also, having only watched the English dubbed anime, the four movies in English, and having read less than 400 chapters of the English manga, there are bound to be some minor mistakes or plot repeats unbeknownst to me, and for this I do apologize. Having said that, enjoy!

**A/N Squared**: It might seem to some (or all) of you that Inuyasha is slightly OOC when he asks...well, just read it and you'll see what I mean, but I had to alter his character JUST SLIGHTLY to get this chapter to work for me. Please try not to come at me with pitchforks. Thanks! :)

* * *

**Chapter 1** - Dissension in the Ranks

"You lecherous pig! I can't believe you!" Sango cried at the top of her lungs. She and Miroku had gone to collect some fresh water for their group in the containers that Kagome had given them, while the other two stayed behind with Shippo to pack up their things from the wooded area they had camped in last night. Today they had planned to move on in their search of the remaining Shikon Jewel shards, and Naraku.

As Miroku and Sango slowly but steadily filled the bottles and Kirara sat watching them intently, Miroku accidentally let it slip to Sango that last night he had met a girl in the village they had visited with Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo and Kirara yesterday. They had heard a rumour that a demon had been spotted just outside the village for the past few weeks and had gone to investigate. It turned out that the "demon" was nothing more than a stray cat in heat, but that wasn't the point.

Nor was it what Sango was angry about now.

Miroku had told her that last night, after the group of friends had left the village and continued travelling, he had returned alone to "see about getting some food" from the headman. It turned out, however, that the headman had quite a beautiful daughter. Miroku did not say anything to Sango about feeding the woman his usual line - "Would you consider bearing my children?" - but Sango wasn't an idiot. She could put two and two together. As Miroku recounted his tale, Sango felt a burning desire to hit him, and this was exactly what she did. Grabbing one of the already-filled water bottles, she clunked the monk over the head with all the force she could muster. Miroku yelped as a large bump began to form around the crown of his head, and rubbed it gently.

"Sango! What was that for?" he asked the girl innocently. Her eyes were fierce and she looked ready for murder.

"You know exactly what that was for, Miroku!" Sango screeched, getting to her feet and gathering all the water bottles she had filled. There were still two left to go, but she had no intention of sticking around. "For ages now I've put up with your lechery - I haven't exactly enjoyed it, but I've dealt with it - but I'm getting sick of it!" Before Miroku could say another word, Sango had turned on her heel and was marching briskly away with Kirara toward the makeshift camp where Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo were waiting.

* * *

"You're joking. You're honestly joking, right?" Kagome demanded, hands on her hips. Her backpack lay at her feet, halfway packed. She had dropped it in disgust when Inuyasha had suggested to her that she should go back home for a while, for her own safety.

"No, I'm _honestly_ not, wench," Inuyasha spat, golden eyes narrowed to slits as he stared Kagome down, "the demonic aura up ahead is way stronger than anything I've felt in ages, and it's getting stronger the closer we get to it. I just get the feeling that you should go back to your own time for a few days so you'll be safe until we can clear this mess up, you got that?"

Kagome certainly hadn't **got that**, and she had no intention of going anywhere without Inuyasha and the rest of her friends, least of all back to the modern era. She wasn't going to do it!

"Inuyasha, you're being completely stupid. Of course I'm not leaving! What if that demonic aura is coming from Naraku or a bunch of strong demons? I can't leave now, there's no way!"

"Keh," Inuyasha said by way of a response, and crossed his arms, plopping down to the ground. He rested his back against a tree and looked up at Kagome, her dark eyes smoldering, "should have known you'd take it like this. Why can't you just co-operate for once? It's not like I want to send you back, you know. I need you..." (he hesitated slightly here) "...to tell me if you sense any of the last few jewel shards, but you'll be way safer in your own time, and besides, I'll come back and get you as soon as we destroy whatever's causing the aura up ahead."

Kagome was incredulous. How could this self-righteous hanyou even begin to think she'd abandon him and their friends now, when they were so close to something so ominous? She let out a cry of anguish, picked up her backpack, and kept packing away her things in silence. Shippo, who had been running around all over the place, gathering pointless objects from the ground to take with him on the next leg of the journey, made his way over to where Inuyasha and Kagome were and dropped the treasures he'd collected.

"I think Inuyasha's right, Kagome," the tiny kitsune piped up, "it's definitely a lot safer in your time than it is here. You don't have to worry about going back, I can handle things here!" he finished, puffing out his chest with pride. Inuyasha reached out and poked his belly, causing the puffy chest to deflate. "Hey! What was that for?" Shippo cried, launching himself at Inuyasha and grabbing onto the hanyou's silver dog ears with his tiny paws. Inuyasha hardly noticed this and swatted Shippo away from him with a quick wave of his clawed hand. Shippo went sailing five feet into the air and landed with a thump a good distance away from Kagome and Inuyasha, muttering under his breath.

"You can handle things, can you, Shippo?" Kagome said with a chuckle, walking over to pick up the kit as he struggled to get back on his feet for round two. She gathered him into her arms and he immediately calmed down, relaxing his tiny body as she carried him back to their temporary campsite. "It doesn't matter, though, because I'm not going back." she told Shippo, placing him down on the ground while he looked daggers at Inuyasha, who didn't react. He was too busy looking up at Kagome.

"Yes, you are!" he said softly but firmly, "If you stay here, you could be facing real danger and I don't want that."

Kagome was furious. She wanted to yell and scream, she wanted to hit him across the head or tell him to sit for being so hard-headed, but she didn't do any of that. Not looking at Inuyasha, she slowly began to walk away from him in the direction that Sango and Miroku had gone to get some fresh water for the group a little while before. It wasn't too long, though, before the monk and the demon slayer were coming up the embankment toward her. Sango was a few feet ahead of Miroku, pounding the hard earth as she walked and sending up clouds of dust with every step, Kirara trying to keep up with her frantic pace. Miroku was running behind, sweat pouring from him, calling out to Sango and trying to get her attention. This didn't appear to be working too well.

"Sango, please! It didn't mean anything!" Miroku cried desperately. Sango completely ignored him and quickened her pace, eventually stopping when she had reached Kagome, who was quite confused. What had happened?

"That monk," Sango began, dropping the bottles she'd been carrying and pointing her left index finger back toward Miroku, who had stopped as well, "is the most disgusting lecher who ever walked the earth." At these words, Miroku looked absolutely devastated and clutched at his chest, as though what the demon slayer had said had caused him physical pain. "I need some time away from him, Kagome. I'm sorry, but I'm going back to my village for a while."

"That's an awfully long way off, Sango," Kagome told her friend, "are you sure?"

Sango snorted, dropping her hand. "Oh yes I'm sure!" she spat acidly, walking away from Miroku and Kagome so fast she was practically running. Kirara had to change into her full youkai form to keep up with her. She didn't bother to collect her things from the campsite, or even to look back, as she sped off in the direction of her village, which was the complete opposite direction than the one that they were all headed in. What she expected to find or do there, she had no idea. All Sango knew was that she needed to put as much distance between herself and Miroku as possible.

* * *

"Miroku, what happened back there?" Kagome asked the monk once they'd seated themselves near the tree Inuyasha was still sitting against. It seemed as though the hanyou had drifted off to sleep, and looking at his sleeping face and the shock of silver hair that blew gently around it as he dreamed, Kagome knew she couldn't stay mad at him any longer (at least until he did or said something else completely stupid), as insane as he was for suggesting that she go back to her own era. Miroku shifted his position, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Well," he began, "I might have accidentally let is slip to Sango that when I went back to the village last night to get some more food for us - which I did!" he added defensively at the sight of Kagome's questioning face and arched eyebrow "- I met the headman's daughter. She was beautiful, a sight to behold! A rare picture of radiant..."

By this time, Inuyasha had woken up. Up until now he'd stayed quite silent, listening to the monk's tale, but at these words his eyes snapped open and he sat up straight.

"Keh," he began, rolling his eyes, "you're never gonna give it up, are you, monk? Hitting on everything with two legs and a heartbeat. It's sick!" the hanyou spat, his golden eyes shining. Miroku looked taken aback at these words.

"But Inuyasha, I assure you, I'm totally innocent! That's what I was trying to tell Sango! I barely even spoke to the girl!" he said. Inuyasha, however, obviously wasn't buying this. He _keh_'d and closed his eyes again. "You don't believe me?" Miroku asked, clearly stung.

"Of course I don't believe you!" Inuyasha exclaimed, "You've never given us any reason to believe you!"

_Oh no_, thought Kagome, _this is gonna be really bad._ She grabbed hold of Shippo's hand and the two of them walked quickly down to the riverbank as Miroku stood up in a threatening manner, his hands forming fists. There was no need, she was sure, for the little kitsune to hear or see whatever was going to happen next. She knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

"How dare you, Inuyasha?" Miroku cried. Inuyasha's quiet, subtle laughter was enough to send Miroku over the edge. He held fast in his resolve not to hurt another living being unnecessarily, but he turned on his heel and walked away from the campsite, toward the village where he had gone last night, without another word to anyone.

* * *

As soon as Miroku had stalked far enough away that he was out of earshot, Kagome and Shippo dashed back to Inuyasha and demanded an explanation.

"What the heck did you do, Inuyasha?" Kagome screeched, incredulous. Whatever the hanyou had done, it had to have been bad if Miroku, the docile, easy-going monk, had decided to leave. Inuyasha finally stood up and stared Kagome down, standing not six inches from her face.

"I didn't do anything, wench!" he exclaimed threateningly, "You heard everything I said! The idiot just decided to leave!"

Kagome scoffed. "I have a really hard time believing that one. Miroku wouldn't randomly just up and decide to leave. _What did you say to him?_"

Inuyasha _keh_'d and looked away. "I haven't got to explain myself to you," he told Kagome in a lowered voice, crossing his arms. Kagome saw red.

"SIT!" she screeched without a second thought. Inuyasha tumbled to the ground with an almighty smack, creating a small crater around where he'd fallen. During the few seconds he was unable to move, a stream of obscenities burst forth from his mouth. As he tried to pick himself up off the ground, Kagome hollered "Sit!" once again, sending him right back down to the dirt. "You wanted me to go back to my own time, Inuyasha, well, now you've got it. I'm going." she declared, snatching up her backpack, slinging it onto her shoulder, and marching in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well.

Shippo's cries of "Kagome! Kagome, come back!" fell on deaf ears as she put more distance between the campsite, the hanyou, the kitsune, and herself. She was going home.

And she was probably going to stay there this time.

* * *

**Yet another A/N**: So what do you guys think? Should I keep writing? My goal is just one or two reviews for this first chapter. If I get even that many, I'll be satisfied and keep writing the next few chapters. Please, please, please R&R this for me. I could really use the feedback. Thanks guys! :)


	2. Bitterness

**Disclaimer**: As sad as this is to admit, I don't own Inuyasha. Ohhhh the things I would do if I did (claps hands together and laughs manically). I'm serious, though. I'd have the world corrupted.

**A/N**: Thanks to the power of sixty billion to the following people:

_**SpaderStallion**_ Ha ha, well up until now my fics usually don't get a large amount of reviews, so I wasn't holding out much hope, but you provided the second review for this chapter and proved me wrong! Thank you so much!

_**InuKagSanMirFan**_ Thanks so much! You definitely convinced me that you think this is great. Hehe. And to answer your question about the shipping, yes, you're quite right. Hope you enjoy! :)

_**GtSoccerChick15**_: Thanks for the review! I know, right? I'm famous for my cliff-hanger endings. Hope you like the rest of the fic!

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**Chapter 2 - Bitterness**

Inuyasha was numb. As he stood by the tree, staring off in the direction Kagome had just taken, he felt completely empty. Not angry, nor frustrated, nor anything else. He was...blank. Every single one of his friends had left, save the tiny kitsune standing by his side weeping none-too-silently, and he was going to be completely alone for goodness only knew how long.

Leaping up into the tree he'd been leaning against earlier before his thoughts got the better of him, Inuyasha settled himself down, gripped his Tetsusaiga and gazed out at the horizon. The bright sun was burning brilliantly from its spot in the sky. From its position, Inuyasha could tell that it was nearly noon. Sango, Miroku and Kagome had left over two hours before and he hadn't even noticed the time passing as he'd stood there, staring, not feeling anything. Shippo, obviously, hadn't felt the passage of time either. The kit was still standing exactly where he had been when Kagome left, face buried in his hands, bawling uncontrollably. Inuyasha couldn't take it anymore.

"Oi, Shippo, cut it out. You're driving me nuts!" the hanyou snarled from his perch in the tree. Instantly, Shippo fell silent, turned around, and glared up at Inuyasha.

"Kagome ran away and you're just gonna _sit_ there, Inuyasha?" Shippo asked, unable to believe that Inuyasha wasn't planning to go after Kagome and bring her back. It was true that the hanyou had suggested she go back to her own time, but surely it wasn't supposed to happen like this?

After a few seconds of the loudest silence ever, Inuyasha spoke.

"Keh," he spat, "I told her to go, anyway, didn't I? This doesn't change anything. Just means she left without me having to convince her anymore." Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders and stared up at the sky once again.

"Inuyasha! Why are you being like this?" Shippo cried. Inuyasha didn't answer him. _Kagome_, Inuyasha thought to himself, _just be safe. Can you do that?_

Sounds of muffled tears emanated from the small kitsune at the base of the tree. Without even looking down, Inuyasha could tell that Shippo was vocalizing exactly how he, Inuyasha, felt. As stubborn as she was and as much as she got on Inuyasha's nerves sometimes, he cared about Kagome and willed her to come back soon, unharmed.

A while later, Inuyasha leapt down from the tree. He'd had enough of sitting on the branch in silence, alone with only his thoughts and the crying young kit as company. The demonic aura coming from a village not too far off was just as strong as it had ever been, and Inuyasha decided that now, with Kagome and the others safely out of harm's way, would be the best time to go and investigate it. He looked around for Shippo who seemed to have disappeared, and looked up to see him fast asleep, lying on his stomach across one of the lower branches of the same tree Inuyasha had been sitting in for the past hour or so. It seemed as though the kitsune had exhausted himself by crying and the effort of trying to climb the tree - presumably to get to Inuyasha and try to knock the stuffing out of him for not running after Kagome. _Keh_, Inuyasha thought inwardly, _why should I go after her anyway?_ Then, upon reflection, he silently added, _It's better like this. At least she won't be hurt._

Inuyasha reached up and prodded Shippo, who stirred in his sleep and muttered something about candy. Inuyasha poked him again, more sharply this time, and the kitsune's eyes, still blurry with sleep, slowly opened. It was clear, however, that he still wasn't completely awake.

"Shippo," Inuyasha began, "I'm going on ahead to check out that village. You stay here. I'll come back when it's safe." Shippo dismissed Inuyasha with a noncommital wave of his tiny paw and turned his face away from the hanyou. Inuyasha suppressed a growl - how much had that annoying little kit actually heard of what he'd said? - and turned away, making his way down the dusty road toward the village which lay ahead.

* * *

Upon leaving Inuyasha, Shippo and Kagome behind, Miroku had marched himself straight back to the village they had visited the day before, and had come to call at the home of the headman who had provided him with food the previous night. The headman had recognized the monk immediately, and had invited him into his home for food and drink.

That was not, however, what Miroku had returned for.

After he had been there for only a few minutes, Miroku had asked the headman the whereabouts of his daughter, the beautiful Hisa (a name which Miroku knew to mean "long lasting" and which gave Miroku's lecherous mind many ideas, each one slightly more filthy than the last), wondering why he had not seen her around the grounds or anywhere in the house yet.

"Oh," the headman had replied with a good-natured chuckle, "Hisa is actually inside bathing right now, but she will be out soon enough." (Insert lecherous thought number two-thousand seventy-one)

Miroku had been satisfied with this, and happily accepted a cup of tea that the headman had just poured.

Now, three hours later, Miroku and Hisa made their way into Hisa's bed chamber, sliding the door behind them as they went. They sat next to each other on the floor, gazing into one another's eyes. Miroku, who could always be counted upon to be the lecher, opened his mouth and spoke the words that had so often resulted in his flesh feeling a stinging slap from Sango's hand, or an almighty smack from her Hiraikotsu.

This time, however, Sango was nowhere nearby, and because of his wish to exact revenge on her for how she had treated him at the riverbank, he had no shame in delivering his usual line:

"Dearest Hisa, would you consider bearing my children?"

* * *

Sango was still fuming. She had been separated from the rest of her group for about three hours now and she was still angry. The nerve of that perverted monk! She couldn't help feeling that she must have missed the rule stating that as long as you professed to be a man of holy lineage, it was fine to be a lecher. The youkai exterminator cried out in anguish and wrapped her arms around herself. She was sitting in exactly the same position she had been for the last two hours or so - leaning against one of the outside walls of her old home. The interior had been mostly destroyed (during the fight where her father and comrades had died and also since she had left the village), and part of the front of the house, on the opposite side of the main door, had been blasted away by something. The part Sango was leaning against, however, remained untouched and she had sat there, motionless, for the past two hours, willing herself not to think about what had happened between her and Miroku earlier that day. Memories of her life before she had met Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo and Miroku came flooding back to her mind and she lost herself in her reminiscence for a little while.

It seemed like only days ago that the battle which had claimed the lives of her father and their dearest comrades, and which had proved that her brother Kohaku was now under the control of Naraku, had taken place, and yet it seemed a lifetime ago. Had it really only been months since she had begun travelling with Inuyasha and the others? She had matured much in the time she had been travelling with the group and she had learned many things about herself. Also, for the first time in her life, she actually had friends. She smiled as she recalled each of their faces. Kagome, the girl from a lifetime away (literally) who had become more like a sister to Sango than a mere friend...Shippo, who was so sweet and could always supply the comic relief...Inuyasha, the frustratingly stubborn inu hanyou who was loyal to a fault and a big softie underneath his hardened exterior...and then there was Miroku.

Oh, yes. Then there was Miroku.

Sango's muscles tightened up as an image of his face flashed in her mind. She could practically feel his hand caress her bottom as she sat there, thinking about his perverted tendencies.

And then she was right back to fuming again.

_How could he?_ Sango thought bitterly to herself, _How COULD he? How much longer does he think I'm going to take this? Does he actually think I believed his story about not laying a hand on that headman's daughter? What a joke!_

Angry questions like these and even angrier thoughts consumed her now and she could feel a violent heat raging throughout her body. She would not - could not! - forgive him this time. There was absolutely no way.

* * *

Kagome stomped her way down the sidewalk as she walked back to her house. She had gone to school for the afternoon session, and it had just ended.

Of course, she hadn't really been able to concentrate on her schoolwork that day.

As her teacher lectured, Kagome had found her mind drifting back to the Sengoku Jidai and the friends she had left there. She was angry at pretty much every single one of them: Sango, for not giving Miroku a chance to explain himself; Miroku, for being his usual lecherous self (despite the fact that he'd said he was innocent, Kagome still wasn't sure she believed him); and Inuyasha, for trying to force her to come back to her era, for being so flippant about everything and for the words he had spoken to her so cruelly: _I don't have to explain myself to you._ A boiling anger erupted in her stomach every time she thought about what had transpired that morning. Their group was constantly at odds about something, but this time was different for some reason. Perhaps because it was the first time that all of them (save Shippo) had gotten angry about different things at exactly the same time. Kagome didn't know. All she knew was that she was better off where she was now.

Sliding open the door to her house once she arrived, she called "Mama? Sota? Grandpa? I'm home!" and walked in through the kitchen. Her ears met with silence as she looked all around for her family who didn't seem to be anywhere in the house. _Hmm_, Kagome thought,_ they must have all gone out or something_. Grabbing herself an apple from the basket of fruit on the kitchen table, she made her way into the living room and sat down. She ate her apple slowly, still deep in thought about the situation she now found herself in. What should she do? If she went back, there was a good chance that it would only be to find even more fighting amongst the group and she wasn't sure she was ready to face that. If she stayed here, though...

Once again, that image of Inuyasha's grinning face appeared in Kagome's mind and she shook her head vigorously to clear it. Why was she thinking about him right now, of all times? She was mad at him! He'd been an idiot!

_Because deep down, you know you can't really be happy unless you're with him, _a tiny voice inside her head piped up from out of nowhere. Kagome dropped her apple in surprise at hearing this thought inside her own head, clapped her hands over her ears and shook her head vigorously to clear the image and to get the voice out of her head.

"Shut up!" she cried aloud to the voice.

_Why should I? You know I'm right!_ it taunted.

"Great," Kagome said aloud again with an air of bitterness, "now I'm going insane on top of all my other problems! I'm talking to myself! That does _not_ happen!"

With that, Kagome ran up to her bedroom, flung herself onto her bed, grabbed her pillow and jammed it down on top of her head. She couldn't come up with any other way to block all the images and dialogue from her mind and relax for once. She lay like that for a while, finally drifting off into a fitful sleep.

* * *

**A/N:** There we go! Chapter two successfully completed! ;)

Please review if you've got two spare seconds. Thanks guys! I love you all!


	3. Drawn Back

**Disclaimer**: As sad as this is to admit, I don't own Inuyasha. Ohhhh the things I would do if I did (claps hands together and laughs manically). I'm serious, though. I'd have the world corrupted.

**A/N**: Huge thanks, this time around, to **InuKagSanMirFan** (for the always-dependable lovely review-ness) and to **Camerado** (for the review, the Favourite Author add, and the Favourite Story add). Thanks so much, you guys!

**Chapter 3** - Drawn Back

Shippo slowly opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings in the golden twilight. _What the heck am I doing in a tree?_ he asked himself once he realized that he was lying draped over a skinny tree branch which, by some miracle, had managed to support his weight. The kitsune racked his brain for any trace of recollection as to why he was up here as his arms began to tingle painfully from what he had heard Kagome refer to as "pins and needles". Suddenly, as though the pain in his shoulders that was spreading all the way down to the tips of his tiny paws had shifted his memory back into place in his brain, he remembered what he was doing on the branch.

_I was on my way up the tree to yell at Inuyasha for letting Kagome go back to her own era!_ the tiny kit recalled, then added _I must have fallen asleep or something_... when he finally realized how late it must be now. The sun was just beginning to turn a golden yellow colour and slowly sink toward the treetops. Shippo looked up into the branches above his head for any sign of the hanyou he had wanted to injure so badly earlier in the day, but there was none. Fear struck Shippo's little heart as he looked around frantically for any sign of Inuyasha or any of his other friends.

"I...Inuyasha?" the frightened kitsune called out into the semi-dimness of the light, "Kagome? Sango? M...Miroku? **Anybody?**" His calls met nothing but silence, however, and he knew he was completely alone. _Where could Inuyasha have gone?_ Shippo wondered, scrambling down out of the tree as fast as his tiny body would allow. He had no recollection that the hanyou had told him exactly where he had planned to go, since the young kit was less than fully awake at the time, and because of this, his brain succumbed to numbing panic. Running around frantically, trying to sniff out any trace of Inuyasha (which was next to pointless because the characteristic youkai sense of smell was nowhere near fully developed in him yet), he called out the hanyou's name repeatedly, hoping for a sign or anything at all that could tell him Inuyasha's whereabouts.

Finally, after five terrifying minutes, something clicked in Shippo's brain and he could hear random words and phrases, spoken in Inuyasha's gruff voice, playing in his head: "the village...stay here...back when it's safe..." Without a moments indecision, Shippo took several deep breaths to calm himself down and darted off in the direction of the village that the rest of the group had said the youki was coming from.

_That must have been where Inuyasha went!_ Shippo assured himself as he ran top-speed down the dusty road, the sun sinking ever lower in the sky.

* * *

Miroku sat alone on the front steps of the headman's home, staring up at the sky as it became stained with brilliant reds, oranges and purples while the sun slowly set. Hating himself, the monk shook his head and tightened his grip on his staff while he leaned back onto the landing and stared upwards.

He should have known from the beginning he could not in good conscience do anything with Hisa, as badly as he might have wanted to (and might have actually done) around six months before, before he had met his group of friends, and most importantly, Sango.

_Oh, Sango, why couldn't you believe me this once? Why did you have to get so angry?_ Miroku thought sadly as he thought of the youkai exterminator who had become his whole world. If only she had believed him...if only she had listened...she would not have stormed off in a rage, Inuyasha would not have accused Miroku of being a lecher (for approximately the million and fifty-seventh time, not that anyone was counting), and Miroku himself would not have gotten angry and stalked back to the village to get revenge using Hisa.

Miroku had known, from the moment he had walked into Hisa's bed chamber, that what he was doing was very wrong. Insurmountable guilt tugged at his heart as Hisa had tugged on his robes and hauled him down to the floor with her. As they kissed, before Miroku had even laid a hand on the woman, a voice inside his head had been telling him _This is wrong!_

The voice, of course, had been right. Miroku had sat up straight, apologized hastily to Hisa, and had walked straight out her bed chamber once again, ignoring her calling out his name, begging him to return. He had sat here, on the front porch, ever since, unable to go back inside and give the headman and his daughter a proper explanation, but unable to return to the campsite either. Being the cowardly fool that he now knew he was, he simply sat there, staring into nothingness, feeling empty and hating himself for what he had almost done. As much as Sango had hurt him with her words: _You lecherous pig! I can't believe you! ... That monk is the most disgusting lecher who ever walked the earth!, _he could not bring himself to be upset with her. He knew that she had been right to accuse him of being a lecher - why should she not, considering how many times he had opened himself up to be viewed as such? - and he was the one who was completely in the wrong. Miroku cared for Sango more than any other woman. That was why he had walked out on the beautiful Hisa, despite the fact that he'd had a prime opportunity to get the ultimate revenge on Sango and everyone else for what they had said to him.

He simply hadn't been able to do it.

Suddenly, the youki he'd been sensing the same as Inuyasha, Sango, Shippo and Kagome had, increased in strength such that Miroku sat bolt upright on the porch and stared out into the semi-darkness. What was going on? He stood up, gripped his staff tightly, and without a word to Hisa or to the headman, he headed down the long dusty road in front of him, following the youki as it increased in strength at an alarming rate.

* * *

Sango felt it when the youki suddenly got stronger. _What's happening?_ the youkai exterminator wondered as she snapped out of her deep thought process and sat up a little straighter against the wall of her old home. It had been so long since she had spent any more than a few minutes at the place where she had grown up that she hadn't been able to bring herself to move from this spot since she had first sat down over seven hours before.

Now, however, she was no longer able to let herself get lost in her musings and ignore the youki as it increased and seemed to become more sinister with every passing second. She stood up, strengthened her grip on her Hiraikotsu and removed her outer kimono, revealing her black youkai extermination outfit. Skilfully tying her hair up at the top of her head, she left the comforting walls of her home's courtyard and ran out into the street toward the youki emanating from a far-off village. She didn't care who or what she would find when she got there, all she knew was that if there was any sign of a youkai, or much worse, the evil hanyou Naraku, she had to go and do whatever she could to expel it.

* * *

Kagome awoke to the sounds of her family chatting animatedly downstairs. Her bedroom was nearly pitch-black now, it being almost night, and at first she was slightly disoriented. It took her a second to realize that she wasn't, as she had originally thought upon waking up, in the Sengoku Jidai with her friends. It took her mothers voice scolding her brother for forgetting to take his shoes off before coming into the house that brought Kagome back to reality. Her heart sunk a little as she realized that she was back in present-day Tokyo, and as she recalled all the memories of what had happened between her and her friends that morning.

Getting to her feet, Kagome stretched and turned on her bedside lamp, unsure if she was ready yet to tell her family she was home. It hadn't been a planned visit - not that they ever were, but Kagome had never wanted to come home feeling like this. Kagome looked at her clock and was slightly taken aback when she realized it was 7:30. She had been asleep for nearly four hours.

_Guess I must have been tired_, she thought to herself, and then added, _but who wouldn't be, after everything that went on this morning back at the campsite?_

"Baka!" Kagome spat acidly in a whisper, referring to Inuyasha. "Why do you have to be so stubborn all the time?" She picked up her pillow and punched it repeatedly with all the strength she could muster, letting some of her anger leak out of her body with each hit. As she continued punching, the little voice in her head (the same one who had spoken to her earlier) piped up and said,

_Ah, but you're the one who's stubborn! After all, who was it who made the final decision to come back to your own time?_

"SHUT UP!" Kagome screeched, hitting her pillow ever harder, not caring anymore if she was heard. The worst part of all this was that she knew the voice was right. She, Kagome, was the one who had made the ultimate decision to return. Inuyasha hadn't forced her. "He was such a moron, though!" Kagome exclaimed, again, quite loudly.

_If he's such a moron_, the voice in her head began, sounding quite amused, _why are you still thinking about him? _Kagome shook her head. She refused to let her conscience get the better of her. _Ah ha!_, it continued triumphantly, _it's because you wish you were still there with him, isn't it? You regret everything that happened and you want to go back to set things right, don't you?_

Sighing, Kagome knew that it was true. Sure, Inuyasha could be a complete baka sometimes, but in truth, she cared about her friends, especially him, far too much to stay mad at them. Even if Inuyasha was a stubborn baka, Sango was slightly intolerant, Miroku was a foolhardy lecher and Shippo was just...Shippo, she knew she had to go back.

Ignoring her mother's voice calling her name from the bottom of the stairs, Kagome retrieved her backpack from where she had dropped it on the floor, slid open her window and climbed out, unnoticed by anyone.

She was going back to the Sengoku Jidai.

* * *

Inuyasha slowed his pace as he noticed the colour of his hair change from silver to black. No sooner had this transformation occurred than he felt his dog ears disappear and new, human ones, sprout on either side of his head. A painful stitch in his side seemed to complete his transformation from hanyou to full human, reminding him that the new moon had come around once more. He swore loudly and stopped altogether, tugging at his newly blackened hair with a violent rage.

"I can't believe I forgot!" he cried in anguish. He hated the new moon, hated that he had to turn into a human, and hated that he had to be so weak when he was so close to the village where the youki was so strong now, that he almost couldn't stand it. For six hours now he'd been travelling at a steady pace, (not over-exerting himself, but not exactly taking a leisurely stroll to smell the flowers on the roadside, either), hoping to reach the village by nightfall. It was true that he hadn't remembered that this was the night of the full moon, but he figured, if he had a fight on his hands - and judging from the youki emanating from the village up ahead, he most certainly did - it would be better to at least start it in daylight.

Not that it mattered, of course. Darkness or not, human form or not, Inuyasha was still itching to reach the village and take on whatever it was that was creating that youki. All signs pointed to one person and one person only: Naraku.

Suddenly, Inuyasha heard his name being called from somewhere not too far behind him. Gripping his temporarily useless Tetsusaiga, he turned around slowly to see Shippo scrambling up the road towards him, waving his tiny arms frantically and bellowing his name at the top of his lungs. Once the kit reached him, he slowed down and began to pant heavily.

"Inu...yasha...I finally...found...you!" Shippo managed to say, before he collapsed to the ground, sending up a tiny cloud of dust around him. Inuyasha couldn't believe his eyes. It seemed like the annoying little kit had followed him all the way out here!

"Number one, Shippo," Inuyasha began, picking up the tiny kitsune by the scruff of his neck and holding him about an inch away from his face, "how the heck did you get all the way out here? And number two, why did you follow me when I told you earlier to stay where the heck you were?"

At the moment, however, Shippo seemed incapable of answering his questions. In fact, he was completely unconscious. Growling inwardly, Inuyasha stuck the kit under his right arm and looked around for a place to rest. He knew he wouldn't be able to do anything tonight, not while he was human, and that Shippo needed time to recover from his journey before he'd be able to go any further. After only a few seconds, Inuyasha spotted a clearing in the forest not too far off the road he was travelling on, and made his way over to it.

He'd continue on toward the village in the morning.


	4. Battle at the Shrine

**Disclaimer**: I still don't own Inuyasha, and I'm still extremely sad about it. So while I go off into a corner and pout about that, please continue reading. ;)

**A/N: **Thank you so much, merci beaucoup, muchas gracias, arigato gozaimasu, vielen danke and all that other good stuff to the ever-wonderful **InuKagSanMirFan** (and to answer your question, Shippo does kind of view Inuyasha as a father figure, but not in the literal "my daddy is an inu hanyou!" sense or anything. It's just that Inuyasha is like the dominant male in his life, so he views him as protective and strong...and as to your other question, you'll just have to read this chapter to find that out...hehe!), and also to **SpaderStallion** as well as **Demon Slayer Houko** for the Favourite Story Add and to **Griddlebone** for the review. :)

...And now, on to your regularly scheduled fanfiction.

* * *

**Chapter 4** - Battle at the Shrine

The sky changed to the steel grey colour that precedes morning as Inuyasha's eyes slowly opened. The first thing he noticed upon awakening was that his hair had turned back to silver. Instinctively he reached up to the top of his head and his hands met with two fuzzy dog ears. He sighed with relief, content with the knowledge that he was no longer fully human. Looking to his left, the hanyou spotted Shippo, still fast asleep on the tree stump where Inuyasha had plunked him, still unconscious, the night before. He semi-grinned and stood up, stretching his arms as he did so.

Inuyasha's mood would not stay this decent (for that was the only word to describe how his mood **could** be given the circumstances at the moment) for long, though, because no sooner had Inuyasha contemplated waking Shippo from his slumber so they could continue travelling, than he saw a huge whirlwind-shaped cloud moving quickly toward him in the same direction Inuyasha had come from the night before. The particular shape of the whirlwind, and its speed, told Inuyasha immediately who was heading in his direction.

Koga.

It took next to no time at all for the wolf youkai to come to a stop directly in front of Inuyasha. The two of them stared each other down and bared their fangs menacingly at one another.

"What the heck are you doing here, wolf?" Inuyasha snarled, not moving an inch.

"I'm following the youki I sensed a while ago that's coming from that village up ahead, not that it's any concern of yours, dog-breath," Koga shot back, then continued, "where's Kagome?"

"Keh," Inuyasha scoffed, finally backing up a few feet from the wolf youkai, "why do you even care? Hasn't she made it obvious to you already that she's not interested in you?"

Koga's eyes hardened. "What makes you think...I never said that was why...you BAKA!" Koga bellowed, letting his emotions get the better of him for the first time ever. What Inuyasha had told Koga rubbed him the wrong way, because as far as the wolf youkai was concerned, Kagome was _his_ woman, and nothing was going to change that. He tightened his hands into fists and moved slowly forward to where Inuyasha stood, a short distance in front of him. "I'm going to ask you again, mutt, where's Kagome?" he asked, his voice lowered in a threatening manner. Inuyasha _keh_'d again but didn't answer. "I'm warning you, dog crap!" Koga continued. Rather than answer, Inuyasha grabbed Shippo from the tree stump, stuck him under his arm, and walked straight past Koga, heading down the road toward the village.

Koga saw red. _No way is this mangy mutt gonna ignore me and get away with it!_ he declared inwardly, chasing after Inuyasha and overtaking him in about half a second.

"Where the heck do you think you're going, mutt?" Koga asked, stepping in front of Inuyasha and crossing his arms.

"Same place you're going, baka." Inuyasha retorted, side-stepping Koga and continuing on his way.

The two continued in this manner all the way down the road: Inuyasha would begin to run, then Koga would overtake him and start questioning him again, usually about Kagome. Angry at Koga, and unable to see why he should have to answer to the wolf youkai, Inuyasha would snarl at Koga, sidestep him and start running again, only to have Koga catch up to him in next to no time.

After the first twenty minutes or so like this, Shippo stirred under Inuyasha's arm. He opened his eyes slowly and let out a yelp of surprise when he finally realized where he was. Inuyasha didn't notice the kit squirming under his arm trying to get free, because he and Koga were still verbally battling each other, so Shippo had to push himself forward with all his might to get free of the hanyou's strong arm. He plopped to the ground with a thud, directly between Inuyasha and Koga. Looking from the youkai to the hanyou and back again, the tiny kitsune had absolutely no idea what was going on, but decided it was probably best not to ask. He quickly scrambled out from between the two fighters and began to walk ahead by himself. Inuyasha still had not noticed him.

"Wolf, I swear, if you don't shut up I'm going to arrange a meeting for your head with Tetsusaiga!" the hanyou growled, gripping the hilt of the sword with his right hand, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice if the wolf tried anything stupid. That was when Inuyasha noticed that his right arm was no longer burdened by anything. "Oi, Shippo!" Inuyasha cried when he saw the kit walking down the road in front of him, "Get back here! The village isn't that far ahead and if you get there before we do, whatever's there will rip you to pieces before we've got a chance to save your sorry hide!"

Shippo turned around and looked at Inuyasha, a look of utter fear on his face. At the hanyou's words, the kitsune ran back and leapt up onto Inuyasha's shoulder. Normally Inuyasha would have unceremoniously flicked him off in less time than it takes to blink, but today, he barely even noticed. Turning back to Koga, Inuyasha growled deep in his throat and took off running at top speed. Shippo clung to Inuyasha's haori for dear life as the hanyou sped off down the dusty road, Koga right alongside.

In next to no time, they had reached the village. The youki was so overpowering now that it sent all three of the travellers into a semi-daze as they walked through the main road. Trying to keep composure, they looked all around them for signs of a fight, but there were none. Every single home they passed was intact, no bodies littered the ground, and there was no distinct metallic scent of human blood. The only oddity they noticed was that there did not seem to be anyone around. What was going on?

The three continued through the village slowly until finally, once they had nearly reached the edge of it, they came to a shrine. Like all the other buildings they had passed, no one was nearby. There was one difference here, however. Inuyasha, Koga and Shippo gasped in silent horror at the sight that met their eyes once they passed through the entrance to the shrine's main temple:

Numerous dead bodies were scattered about the ground.

* * *

Kagome pounded the dusty earth as she ran along at nearly breakneck speed. As though the idea had come to her sometime in the night, she realized that the most likely place Inuyasha and Shippo could have gone (since she had not been able to find them anywhere near the campsite that the group had been staying at) was the village with the strangely strong youki that they had all planned to head towards before their huge fight. _They must have gone to check it out!_ she realized. Suddenly, as she ran ever faster, she felt the presence of a Shikon Jewel shard.

Make that two shards.

_Koga's around here too?_ she wondered, completely confused, _Okay, what the heck is going on?_

With that, Kagome picked up speed even more and darted down the road, ignoring the stitch forming in her side as the presence of the jewel shards became more pronounced with every step.

* * *

"What the - ?" Inuyasha exclaimed, dashing toward the temple. The bodies scattered on the ground at his feet were freshly felled - they had not been dead for long. What made this extremely strange, however, was the fact that there was no blood anywhere! The bodies, too, were free of any cuts, bruises, or any other signs of a struggle. The people were clearly dead, but how had it happened? It was as though they had simply keeled over where they stood and died on the spot.

Inuyasha knelt down beside one body. This one belonged to a young man, probably no older than 25 or so. His eyes were closed, like the rest. Inuyasha inspected the body closely for a few moments until he discovered something strange: tiny holes, no bigger than pinpricks, covered every exposed inch of the man's flesh. The holes were so small that they would have been impossible to see from a distance, but upon close inspection, they were visible. Some of the holes were slightly red and inflamed, but some looked as though the skin had merely been pricked with a sharp twig.

"Oi, Koga, get over here!" Inuyasha called to the wolf youkai, who was a few feet off, gazing around at the sea of bodies and shaking his head. Begrudgingly Koga made his way over to Inuyasha. "Take a look at this." the hanyou told him. Koga knelt down and looked at the spots Inuyasha was indicating, eyes widening.

"What the - ?" Koga said, in a perfect imitation of Inuyasha, almost whispering, "What the heck does this mean?"

Inuyasha was just about to shake his head when, as if to answer Koga's question, the temple door slid open with a bang. Shippo, Inuyasha and Koga looked in the direction the noise had come from to see the door, wide open, with no one standing in it. All that could be seen was what looked like a large, flat dark grey patch of something heading down the main steps toward the group. Inuyasha stood up and unsheathed Tetsusaiga, Shippo trembling in fear on his shoulder, while Koga charged directly toward the moving grey mass. Once he had made contact with the front of it, he began to yelp in pain. The grey shadow-like object was crawling up his legs.

Wishing he had any other choice but this one, Inuyasha ran toward Koga to see what was crawling all over him. From this vantage point, he could see at least thirty tiny little flea youkai making their way up Koga's body. They sank their barbs into his exposed flesh in their tiny bodies swelled as they sucked out his blood. The wolf youkai's legs, torso and neck were covered in the youkai. The more he managed to bat away, the faster more would climb onto him and begin to feast on his blood.

Inuyasha was frantic. He had no idea what to do. He couldn't do anything about the youkai while they were attacking Koga, but he couldn't let them simply suck out his blood. Although it had long been one of his dearest desires to rid himself of the wolf as quickly as possible, he refused to let it happen like this. No one deserved to die this way, not even useless wolf bakas like Koga. Inuyasha knew, instinctively, that this must have been what happened to the villagers around the shrine. It would have explained why there was no bloodshed and the corpses looked as though they had not been harmed.

"Inuyasha," Shippo asked in a terrified voice, "what are we gonna do?" The flea youkai were beginning to make their way onto Inuyasha's legs now and if he did not do something, he would soon be covered in the disgusting creatures as fast as Koga had been. Ignoring Shippo and thinking fast, Inuyasha leapt up to the roof of the shrine temple and called down to Koga.

"Oi, wolf!" Inuyasha cried, "Listen to me! Get yourself to higher ground if you can, and stay the heck back from anywhere the Tetsusaiga might touch you. Keep trying to get those things off you, and I'll talk care of the rest."

Koga did as he was told. As much as he hated taking orders from the flea-bitten (pun very much intended) mutt, he knew that Inuyasha happened to be right this time. He jumped onto the porch of the temple and crouched down. The flea youkai seemed to have stopped pouring from the main doorway now, but as the only bodies on the ground outside had already been drained of all their blood, it would only be a matter of time before the youkai would get bored and come after bodies with live blood still flowing through their veins.

Up above, Inuyasha raised Tetsusaiga over his head and roared "Kaze no Kizu!", sending an immense blast of energy to the ground. In next to no time, the hundreds of flea youkai peppering the ground disappeared from the force of the blast. The only ones that remained were the ones still clinging to Koga, gorging themselves and becoming thick with his blood. He swatted them away, some with difficulty, and stamped on them with his foot.

"Mutt!" Koga called, "Get down here!"

Inuyasha dropped from the roof and joined the wolf youkai, who was covered from head to foot in tiny marks, some of which were swelling slightly.

"You all right?" Inuyasha asked begrudgingly, not meeting Koga's eyes. Koga grunted, by way of an answer.

"What the heck was that all about?" he asked, gazing out at the bodies.

"No idea, but those fleas were way too easy to destroy. I don't get it. There's still a strong youki here, too." Inuyasha said, crossing his arms. An uneasy feeling tugged at him and he knew that the worst was yet to come.

* * *

And come it did.

Neither Inuyasha, nor Koga, nor Shippo knew exactly when it first stood in the doorway of the temple, leering at them. It was so silent that even their sensitive youkai ears could not pick it up. They felt the presence of the youki increase once more and it was not until the three of them began to look around that they noticed that something was standing behind them.

Something cloaked in a full baboon skin.

"You!" Koga exclaimed, whirling around to face the being, which laughed deep in its throat.

Inuyasha spun around as well and bared his fangs. "Naraku" he said, barely above a whisper. This explained everything. As he had done the day before, Inuyasha now felt completely numb. He felt no emotion, and only the burning desire to destroy the hanyou standing in front of him. This one goal coursed through his body, heating him from the inside like a sudden flame. He knew it was now or never.

"Ku ku ku..." the baboon chortled, not moving or showing its true face to them, "you are sorely mistaken" it told the group.

Unblinking, Inuyasha shot back, "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

The baboon merely replied, "I am not the one you seek."

_What?_ Inuyasha thought incredulously. _Not the one...wait a minute, this thing isn't Naraku? You've got to be kidding me._ But this had happened before. A youkai puppet, taking on merely the guise and voice of Naraku - the evil hanyou against whom so many in the Sengoku Jidai had a personal vendetta - often presented itself before Inuyasha and his group, normally to lure them into a trap using its youki and to divert their attention away from finding the real Naraku, wherever he happened to be hiding at the time.

"Where's Naraku hiding?" Koga demanded boldly, forming fists and raising one, staring the puppet down with his fierce eyes.

"Ku ku ku..." the puppet began, "that is purely for me to know, and for you to find out. If you are capable, that is."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and began to raise Tetsusaiga above his head. "Enough of this!" he snarled, "Time to tear this baka to pieces!" But just as he prepared to attack, Inuyasha heard his name being called from somewhere above him.

"Inuyasha!" a female voice called. Inuyasha followed the sound and looked up to the sky, where he saw Kirara in her full neko youkai form, and astride her, holding the Hiraikotsu in a ready attack position, was Sango.

"Sango!" Inuyasha exclaimed, "Stay up there, will ya? Don't come any - !"

But the youkai exterminator didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence. "Hiraikotsu!" she cried, flinging the huge boomerang in the direction of the youkai puppet, who made no move to escape. It was soon clear why the puppet was not worried about being hit by Sango's weapon: as it came within inches of the puppet, the Hiraikotsu merely bounced away, presumably in mid-air.

"A barrier!" Inuyasha cried in realization. He decided to use the moment that Naraku's puppet was watching the Hiraikotsu fly back to Sango to break the barrier down. His Tetsusaiga began to glow a violent red and Inuyasha brought it swishing down through the air. After a number of seconds, the Tetsusaiga obliterated the barrier and the puppet was exposed. Once it realized that its barrier had collapsed, it flew into a violent rage and launched itself into the air as Inuyasha raised the sword for another attack. "Kaze no Kizu!" the hanyou yelled, sending another blast of energy upwards toward the puppet, still suspended in mid-air. The baboon-skin clad puppet, however, was much too fast and dodged the attack seconds before it hit. Furious and wondering why the heck the useless puppet hadn't bothered to attack him back, Inuyasha raised the sword once again and was just about to bring it down when he heard another voice coming from behind him, this one from the ground and not calling out his name.

"Kazaana!" the voice cried. Inuyasha already knew who was behind him, but he did not want to turn around and break his concentration. Koga, however, spun around at the sound of Miroku's voice.

"Hey, it's that monk!" Koga exclaimed.

"Miroku!" Sango cried, still in mid-air, some ten feet from the puppet, sitting astride Kirara.

Miroku said nothing in response, still focussing all his energy on his Kazaana and sucking the puppet into it before it could do any damage. It was not long, however, before a faint buzzing could be heard in the air, somewhere behind the puppet. The dark figures of Naraku's poisonous insects zoomed out from behind it and came rushing toward the monk, soaring directly toward his Kazaana.

"Saimyosho!" Miroku spat acidly, not covering the Kazaana. _I can't close it up, _the monk thought to himself,_ if I do, the puppet won't be destroyed. This is a fast one; it doesn't look like Tetsusaiga is going to be any good._

"Close it up, baka! You'll be poisoned! You should know how this works by now!" Inuyasha roared, still not turning around. The puppet was still suspended overhead, not moving, preferring, it seemed, to let the Saimyosho do all the work.

"Inuyasha's right, Miroku! Cover up your Kazaana or you'll be killed!" Sango called from the air.

Once again, however, Miroku seemed deaf to the warnings of his friends. He held fast, refusing to give in, and the Saimyosho began to enter the black void in his hand, one by one. Miroku's face was contorted in pain but he did not move. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Kirara and Sango swooped down and the youkai exterminator grabbed the monk, pulling him onto Kirara's back. Finally, he closed up the Kazaana.

"Miroku, you baka! Why did you do that?" Sango snapped, directing Kirara higher into the air to avoid the remaining three or four Saimyosho who were hot on their trail.

"My dear Sango," Miroku began, sounding weak, "I had no choice in the matter."

And with that, Miroku slumped toward her, unconscious, coming to rest on her back with a thud. The poison was already taking effect. Sango yelped in alarm and threw the Hiraikotsu at the Saimyosho, ripping them to pieces as they flew.

Back on the ground, Inuyasha, Koga and Shippo turned all their attentions to the youkai puppet, still suspended creepily in mid-air, waiting for them to make their next move.

"This is getting annoying! I hate wasting my time on useless puppets!" Inuyasha exclaimed, raising his Tetsusaiga one more time. Koga bent low to the ground, hands in fists, ready to leap into the air and take on the puppet if it moved away from the attack of Inuyasha's sword. Shippo had climbed up onto Inuyasha's head and also looked ready to kill. In one flash of the Tetsusaiga's great fang blade, Inuyasha called "Kaze no Kizu!".

At the exact moment he uttered the name of the attack, another cry came from somewhere behind him. This voice was the one that he had missed above all others; one that he had secretly longed to hear since he had last heard it when it was yelling at him, the day before. It was just one word, one little syllable, but that was all Inuyasha needed to hear.

"Go!" Kagome cried, sending one of her sacred arrows flying into the air toward the puppet, right alongside Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu. The power of the arrow increased as it travelled and met with the golden blast of energy from the sword, and the two combined to form one massive superpower as they met with the puppet's body and shattered it to pieces. Its various body parts floated through the air and slowly began to disappear before the group's very eyes, as the same cold, sinister voice echoed through the cloudless sky.

"Ku ku ku..." Naraku's voice began, "do not fret, Inuyasha, the one you seek still awaits your arrival. He will be most pleased to know that you have made it this far, given the pains he took to lure you here." At this, Inuyasha's muscles tightened once again. The puppet was speaking in Naraku's voice, but using the third person, probably to confuse the group. "Even he did not think that you would be so stupid as to fall for yet another trap involving a mere puppet and the death of worthless humans."

And with that, the puppet disappeared altogether, leaving nothing but clear blue sky in its wake.


	5. Waiting

**Disclaimer**: I still don't own Inuyasha, and I'm still extremely sad about it. So while I go off into a corner and pout about that, please continue reading. ;)

**A/N:** I've been wondering why I bother putting up these notes, since I abhor them so highly, but I just feel the need to thank the people who've taken their valuable time to review my rambling waffle or add it to their "Favourite" lists. So, as usual, here we go: Thanks to **Ayani-chan** and also to **Demon Slayer Houko**, and to answer your question, well, just read this chapter and you'll see how the group reacts toward one another! ;) Many thanks also to **Maire 53** and to **InuKagSanMirFan.**

Also, this fanfic is going to be ending very shortly. I'm thinking that one more chapter, at the most, should do it. I had planned to extend it and make it a whopping 20-something chapters, but my final exams are coming up (I love university...NOT) and I just won't be able to co-ordinate studying and writing this, and I don't want to make you guys wait, so I'm going to wrap it up fairly soon. So sorry about this! You'll enjoy the ending, I promise! (Shifty eyes)

* * *

**Chapter 5** - Waiting

The group stood in complete silence for a time, watching the spot where the youkai puppet had disappeared from, as though expecting it to re-appear and attack them all without warning. Motionless and silent, they stared, not wanting to break their focus, lest something happen when their backs were turned.

Well, there was that, and also an awkward tension in the air that you could cut with a knife. Now that the entire group was reunited, none of them seemed to want to look at one another or say anything. In the heat of battle they had managed to band together to destroy the flea youkai, the Saimyosho and the puppet, but now that it was over the atmosphere was right back to being uncomfortable. Throw Koga, who was still standing on the porch with Inuyasha, into the mix and you had a recipe for a potential war.

Laboured breathing, however, brought everyone back to reality with an almighty jolt. The group looked in the direction of Miroku, who had fallen from Kirara to the ground and was now clutching his chest, his entire body writhing in pain. Everyone could plainly see that his hand had turned a sickening deep purple colour, tinged with green. Beads of sweat formed along his hairline and rolled onto his face, which was also turning slightly green. It seemed the Saimyosho's poison had taken effect on him.

Sango and Kagome rushed to Miroku's side as he began to thrash more violently on the ground and speak in nonsensical, incoherent sentences, his eyes rolling back in his head. Sango knelt down and gently wiped away the sweat from his forehead, speaking softly to the monk, despite the fact that he was beyond being able to hear her now.

"Shh...Miroku, it's all right...don't try to talk..." she whispered, letting her hand rest on his damp forehead. As frustrated as she was, and undoubtedly would remain, at the man lying on the ground before her, she knew that he needed her right now, and that was all that mattered.

"S - Sango!" he exclaimed in a thick, slurred voice. For one fraction of a second, his eyes stopped rolling around in their sockets and he was able to look directly at the woman. Her eyes met his and she could feel heat rising to her cheeks. She was just about to look away when Miroku went right back to convulsing violently.

"Kagome," Sango asked desperately, turning to her friend who stood beside her, "do you have anything in your bag for this?"

Kagome shook her head sadly. "Nothing for poisons."

Both girls felt totally helpless. They hated just watching Miroku get increasingly ill as the time passed. Behind this group, as well, Inuyasha, Shippo and Koga stood watching, knowing they were powerless to extract the poison or even ease Miroku's pain.

Suddenly, just when the situation was starting to look desperate and Miroku had started to vomit onto the ground beside him, Inuyasha felt a prick itch the side of his neck. He slapped at it, and into his palm fell Myoga - the flea youkai and Inuyasha's "mentor" of sorts.

"Master Inuyasha, how wonderful to taste your blo - I mean, to _see you_ again!" Myoga spoke as he reinflated himself and stood in Inuyasha's palm. The flea was looking all around him, seemingly very nervous about something.

"Myoga," Inuyasha began, slightly surprised to see the flea youkai here, of all places, "what are you doing here?"

Myoga bowed a little, still trembling. "I heard that a swarm of flea youkai had travelled to this shrine and were sucking the blood of innocent villagers, so I felt compelled to come and see for myself."

"Keh," Inuyasha spat, "you missed the fun. The fleas are gone, and so is the puppet that came with them!"

"Oh, well that is wonderful news!" Myoga exclaimed, wiping his forehead, "I shudder at the thought of what would have happened if the youkai had been given free reign of the entire village!"

Inuyasha smirked and caught the flea between his clawed thumb and forefinger, squeezing his tiny body a little. "Was it that, or are you just relieved to know that battle's over, Myoga?" the hanyou asked, his voice dripping with disdain.

Myoga seemed to swell to twice his normal size and looked incredulous. "Now see here, Master Inuyasha," he began, talking very quickly, "I really don't appreciate the insinuation. You're making it sound as though - !"

Exactly what the hanyou was making the insinuation sound like, however, no one ever found out. Inuyasha had completely squished the flea youkai between his fingers to stop him talking. "Spare me the theatrics, Myoga. Listen, Miroku's been poisoned by Naraku's Saimyosho. Can you do anything about it?"

After some struggling, Myoga managed to return to his normal size once again and, smoothing down the two hairs on top of his tiny head, looked daggers at Inuyasha, mumbling something about ingrateful hanyous who wouldn't know respect if it bit them on the nose. Inuyasha chose to ignore this verbal barb and walked down the shrine steps toward Miroku, so Myoga could get a closer look at him. His condition had worsened even in the short time since Myoga had arrived. It appeared that Miroku had completely lost consciousness and was now lying limp on the ground. His hand was now almost completely green and was beginning to give off a foul odour.

"Well, my goodness, I've never seen a situation quite this bad!" Myoga exclaimed, hopping down onto Miroku's hand and surveying the damage. "How long has he been poisoned?" the flea youkai asked, looking up at Inuyasha.

"Can't have been more than ten minutes," the hanyou replied.

Sango looked at Myoga with desperation etched all over her face. "Is there anything you can do, Myoga?" she asked, tears stinging the corners of her dark eyes. _There's no way I'm going to let you die, Miroku_, she silently promised the ill monk, _because as frustrated as I get with you sometimes, I...I... _

Miroku coughed and forced Sango away from her thoughts. He stirred a little in his unconscious state, moving ever so slightly: without telling anyone, Myoga had already begun to extract the poison in Miroku's body through his hand. The tiny flea youkai began to swell to an alarming size as he drank Miroku's blood and the poison that infected it. Once he had inflated to triple his normal size, he took a break, looking at Sango, who was still crouched beside Miroku's body.

"This is an absolutely amazing amount of poison. Frankly, I'm astounded he hasn't already died," Myoga told the youkai exterminator as gently as he knew how, "since this is only about a quarter of the poison that was in him, I can't extract any more just at the moment, or I will not be able to handle it myself. This monk will have to rely on his own will power to survive, at least until I'm able to extract the rest of this poison from his _delicious_ blood."

Sango nodded, resigned. Myoga had already done more than any of the rest of them could have done, and for that she was grateful. It looked as though it would be possible for Miroku to survive this, as long as he could be strong.

"Miroku, you have to hang in there. Can you do that for me?" Sango whispered, grasping the monk's right hand in hers, pleased that he was at least somewhat peaceful for now.

Inuyasha crossed his arms inside his haori. "Keh," he spoke up, "I thought you were ready to rip that cretin limb from limb yesterday morning!"

Sango blushed a little. "Oh, I was," she began, not meeting Inuyasha's gaze, "and he's still going to get the beating of a lifetime for what he did when he's feeling better, but for now..." she let her sentence trail off, but everyone understood where she had intended to go with it. The look on her face as she gazed at Miroku's limp body was enough to tell them all what they needed to know. Despite everything, Sango still cared far too much for Miroku to stay mad at him for much longer.

* * *

After a few moments of complete silence, Inuyasha walked away from the rest of the group. He sat down on the front steps of the shrine and let the girls, Shippo and Myoga tend to Miroku. The tension between everyone was still thick enough to cut with something, and even Inuyasha was getting ever so slightly uncomfortable.

Koga, who had not moved a muscle since the youkai puppet had disappeared, turned around, crossed his arms, and sneered at Inuyasha.

"What's the matter, mutt?" he asked sarcastically.

"None of your business, lousy wolf!" Inuyasha retorted savagely, not bothering to look at Koga. He was too busy watching the scene in front of him: Sango was bent almost double over Miroku's body, Shippo stood on Miroku's chest and was checking every few seconds to see if the monk was still breathing, and Kagome was standing up once again with her hands folded, looking genuinely concerned.

_Kagome..._ Inuyasha couldn't help thinking, _what made you decide to come back?_ he stared at her for so long that Koga took notice and went into transports of rage.

"Mutt!" the wolf youkai roared, pounding Inuyasha on the head, knocking him backwards in surprise but not doing any damage, "What are you doing staring at my woman?"

Inuyasha got to his feet and tightened his hands into fists, growling deep in his throat. He was just about to deliver a blow to the absolute worst place on Koga's body he could think of to do it, when Kagome appeared at his side. Koga looked delighted and wasted no time in dashing to her and grabbing her away from Inuyasha, dragging her backwards on the porch by the waist. She struggled a little to get away, and when Koga finally lessened his grip on her she turned to face him.

"Koga," she said calmly, "what the heck was that for? What made you think I want to be dragged off by you?" Koga looked crestfallen. Inuyasha's heart soared. She had _finally_ unceremoniously told the annoying wolf exactly where to go! Trying not to let his contentedness and his desire to cry "HA!" in Koga's face show through, he spoke.

"Kagome, I..."

But Kagome cut him off. Rounding on him, she inhaled deeply and began to shriek, walking closer to the hanyou, her right index finger raised in his direction as she moved.

"And you!" she began, "_you_ are the most stubborn, hard-headed, self-obsessed, cocky person I've _ever met!_"

Inuyasha was truly frightened. He could practically see a major vein throbbing against her temple as her face turned the colour of...well, technically, the colour of any violently red object known to man. And some that weren't.

"D-don't those all mean the same thing?" Inuyasha asked in a timid voice so uncharacteristic of his own.

"SIT!" Kagome screamed. Inuyasha plunged to the floor with an outrageous smack, crying out from surprise as he hit the wood. Just as he managed to begin to pick himself up, she sat him again.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried, unsteadily getting to his feet once more.

"Sit!" _**Crash.**_

"I swear, just let me - !"

"Sit!" _**Crash.**_

"Why the heck are you - ?"

"SIT! SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!" _**Crash crash crash crash crash crash.**_

By this time, Inuyasha had lost all ability to communicate verbally and chose to simply get up silently, wincing as he expected to feel himself being forced down to the ground again. Koga was bent double, laughing heartily as he watched the hanyou return to his feet. Inuyasha raised one eyebrow in Kagome's direction, growling slightly.

"Couldn't bring yourself to let me say two words in my defense, I guess?" he asked Kagome sarcastically. Her dark eyes hardened and she looked away from him.

"Do you think you deserve that chance, Inuyasha?" she asked the hanyou, who was taken aback at that question.

"Aren't you the one who ran off when all was said and done?" he shot back acidly. Kagome looked fiercely at him, her eyes flashing, but said nothing. She might have, however, if not for Koga, who was still howling with laughter and slapping his knee directly behind her. "Oi, wolf! Would ya shut up?" Inuyasha exclaimed. At his words, Koga straightened up and looked daggers at Inuyasha.

"Who are you to tell me what to do, baka?" Koga asked, advancing toward Inuyasha, who unsheathed Tetsusaiga and stood ready to strike. Kagome turned toward Koga and stopped him by thrusting her hands at his chest.

"Koga! This isn't going to solve anything!" she told him, and his eyes softened. He put an arm around her shoulders with a triumphant look on his face and tried to lead her away from the porch.

"I'm sorry, Kagome," he began, ignoring the fact that Kagome was doing her best to wriggle her way out of his grasp, "I shouldn't have lost my temper." At this, Koga turned around and raised his free hand in a fist, shaking it in Inuyasha's direction. The enraged hanyou roared in anger and bolted down the steps. Still holding Tetsusaiga in one hand, Inuyasha hauled Kagome out from underneath Koga's arm. When Koga noticed that not only was Kagome gone, but she wasn't absolutely _begging_ to be returned to him, he snarled and grabbed her hand to take her back.

"Koga! Stop it!" the miko cried, slapping him away.

Koga was hurt. "But Kagome - !"

Shippo's voice, calling from where Miroku still lay, forced the three teens out of their spat. "Could you guys please not fight right now?" the kitsune asked them, shaking his head.

Inuyasha, Kagome and Koga were all slightly embarrassed. Looking at things rationally, they should have realized that they were attracting attention, and given the current circumstances, all of them should have been focussing all their energies on helping Miroku to recover. _Oops._

Kagome rushed away from Inuyasha and Koga and joined Sango, Myoga, Kirara and Shippo, who were all still watching over Miroku. The inu hanyou and the wolf youkai continued arguing in the background, but no one was really paying them any attention. Myoga was making his way back up to the area of Miroku's hand he had bitten before, telling the group something as he hopped along.

"...Saimyosho poison is always particularly lethal, and Miroku has been infected with quite a lot of it. I think that my body is ready to take on some more of his poisonous blood now, but I will certainly need the rest of the day to recover before I can take the remainder. Up until then, all we can do is wait and see how his body responds. There is no remedy powerful enough, not even my blood mixture, to make him well as fast as we would obviously like to. Until later this afternoon, Miroku's survival depends on his willpower." At these words, Myoga inserted the barb on his face, which had so often sucked the blood of every single member of the group at some point (save Koga), into Miroku's hand and began to draw out the monk's poisonous blood.

Looking at Sango, Kagome saw a look of desperate sadness on her face. She had not spoken to anyone except Miroku since she had first returned, but the look in her eyes and her furrowed brow told Kagome that the youkai exterminator was extremely upset.

_It seems like Sango doesn't really care about the fight she had with Miroku yesterday...either that, or she's trying to forget about it, _Kagome thought to herself, looking back at where Inuyasha and Koga had now starting yanking each others hair, screaming obscenities at each other that, in normal circumstances, Kagome wouldn't have allowed Shippo to hear. At the moment, however, it didn't really seem to matter much. _Inuyasha..._

Finally, Koga stopped hauling on Inuyasha's silver hair, and the hanyou fell backwards once the force of the tugging had been removed.

"Why you - !" Inuyasha snarled threateningly, getting to his feet. Koga, however, no longer seemed in any mood for a fight.

"Save it, Dog Boy, I'm done with you!" the wolf youkai exclaimed, and walked away from the panting hanyou who looked ready to kill. Koga walked over to Kagome and grasped her hands in his.

"I hate having to part like this, my dear Kagome, but you'll see me again soon, I promise. And when you do, you'll also see Naraku's head on a platter, just like I've been promising!" Koga punched the air triumphantly and, in a swirling mass of wind, was gone.

Kagome rolled her eyes a little and turned to look at Miroku. His condition had not changed, and Myoga was still sucking out his blood. The tiny flea youkai was now swelling to the size of a baseball (not that Kagome mentioned this to anyone because frankly, she was the only one who knew what a baseball was) and looked in danger of popping, but he continued to draw out the blood slowly but at a steady pace. Inuyasha walked up beside Kagome and stood next to her, looking at her awkwardly.

"Uh, Kagome," he began, "can I talk to you? In _private_?" he added, gritting his teeth, when Shippo looked up at his two friends. Kagome narrowed her eyes a little but decided to go along with him. Silently the two walked away from the rest of the group and around the side of the shrine temple. Inuyasha leaned against the wall, crossing his arms beneath the sleeves of his haori and preparing himself to do something he never did very often.

He was going to apologize to Kagome for how he'd acted yesterday.


	6. Meant to Be

**Disclaimer**: I STILL don't own Inuyasha, and I'm probably going to need serious therapy to come to terms with that fact.

**A/N:** Really sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, you guys. I'm in the midst of my final exams and packing to go home from university for the summer next week. Having said that, this is the last chapter of SIN. I thought about extending it, but I had to be realistic - I can't fail my finals, after all! Ha ha. It's been great, though. I love you all.

Thanks this round to go **Krazygirl140** for the Favourite Story Add, and to **Sesshomaru121** (just wait and see!), as well as to **InuKagSanMirFan,** who has, to the best of my recollection, faithfully commented on every single chapter of this fanfic, as well as some of my other ones. Yay you! :) And finally, to **FaBzZ** for the Story Alert Add. I feel special!

* * *

**Chapter 6** - Meant to Be

Inuyasha took a breath and stared down at the ground.

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, her words coming out a little more harshly than she had meant them to. Inuyasha looked at her, and her face softened a bit.

"I just wanted to say...to say I'm sorry, all right, wench?" Inuyasha managed to get out. This was _so hard to do_. He'd never been particularly good at expressing his feelings, but there was something about expressing them to Kagome that made the task even more difficult.

Kagome was stunned. She had no idea what she'd expected Inuyasha to tell her, but this definitely was not it. He hardly ever apologized for anything! She thought she knew what he was apologizing for, but she decided to ask him anyway, to torture him a little bit and make him elaborate on what he'd started to say.

"What for?" she asked. Now Inuyasha was highly uncomfortable. _She's gonna make me explain it?_ he moaned internally, growling a little in his throat and throwing his head back against the wall of the temple, giving himself a few extra seconds to think of how best to put this. He couldn't for the life of him understand why girls always needed in-depth, detailed explanations about everything to do with any guy's feelings! (A/N: Duh. That's all I have to say about that one.)

"For the way I acted yesterday, Kagome," he began, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he really thought about them, "I shouldn't have said I wanted you to go back to your own time and I should have answered you when you asked me what went on between Miroku and I." After a pause, Inuyasha looked at Kagome once again and asked, "Happy now?"

Kagome grinned evilly. What Inuyasha had told her was as close as he was likely to ever get to admitting that he had been an incomprehensible baka, and for Kagome, those words were enough. However...

"Well actually, Inuyasha, I'm not."

Inuyasha whined. "What now, woman?" he cried in frustration, but the grin spreading across her face was enough to tell him what she was planning.

"Sit!" she exclaimed, smiling fully, sending Inuyasha plummeting to the ground for what must have been the millionth time that day. Unlike usual, however, Kagome extended her right hand to the hanyou and helped to pull him up from the dusty ground.

"Kagome, I swear, if you ever do that to me again, I'll - !" Inuyasha began, cracking his knuckles. Exactly what he would have done remained unclear, however, as Kagome pulled Inuyasha closer to her and kissed him gently on the lips.

As they moved apart a few moments later, Inuyasha looked more confused than anything else. "K-Kagome?" he spluttered, "What was that?"

Kagome grinned. "You might be a complete baka sometimes, Inuyasha, but I don't have any trouble looking past that," she told him simply. Inuyasha smiled back at her but for once, didn't seem to be able to say a word.

_That's okay_, thought Kagome, _he doesn't have to._

The hanyou pulled Kagome into a tight hug, burying his nose in her dark hair. Neither of them spoke a word, but remained in the embrace for what seemed like eternity.

Surely, this was how things were meant to be.

* * *

Later in the evening, the group was seated in a circle on the floor of Kaede's hut. They had decided hours before that the hut of the old miko was the best place for them to bring Miroku. Although she did not currently have anything in her stores of herbs and potions that could completely cure the amount of poison still in Miroku's blood, she did have a remedy to help ease his pain and enable the monk to rest more comfortably. They had put him in Kaede's bed chamber and had spent the remaining hours of the afternoon and evening in the main room, simply talking. It had been a while since the group had visited Kaede and it was good to see her again, even given the current circumstances.

Since their encounter earlier in the day, Inuyasha and Kagome hadn't been able to keep identical small grins off their faces and now, they were sitting extremely close together, despite the fact that there was a lot of floor space and no need for them to huddle up like that. They both seemed immensely happy about something, but no one could figure out why. Especially Shippo, who had been with the miko and the hanyou until the entire group had split up, had seen the extent of their bitter words and Kagome storming off to the modern era. He arched an eyebrow and looked at them skeptically as he munched on a lollipop that Kagome had brought him a few weeks before, wondering what could have changed in the few minutes they had been alone by the side of the main building of the temple. Chewing thoughtfully, Shippo continued to stare.

"What is it, Shippo?" Kagome asked kindly, smiling down at the kitsune. His face reddened and he turned away. He hadn't realized anyone had noticed him looking.

"Uh, n-nothing, Kagome!" he lied, suddenly becoming very interested in his candy. For a moment there was an awkward silence - Kaede and Sango, who had been deep in conversation up to this point, had now stopped talking and were looking at Inuyasha and Kagome, who were looking at Shippo. Kagome looked inquisitive, wondering what could be on the kit's mind, but Inuyasha just looked ready to murder Shippo for staring at him and Kagome. He wasn't, however, saying anything.

_Inuyasha has been awfully quiet this afternoon, and even Kagome seems sort of happy, _Sango mused, _I wonder what could have gotten into those two? I know they're worried about Miroku, but something definitely happened between then when Inuyasha asked to talk to Kagome back at the shrine today._ The youkai exterminator remained silent as well, petting Kirara, who was curled up into a ball next to her, absentmindedly.

At this exact moment, Myoga jumped down from Inuyasha's shoulder and into his lap. "Master Inuyasha," he began, looking up at the hanyou, "I believe I should now be able to extract some more of the poison from Miroku's blood."

"Okay, Myoga," Inuyasha growled impatiently, waving his hand in dismissal, "it's not like I need a detailed description or anything, just get to it already!" Myoga narrowed his eyes at the hanyou, mumbling something about lousy ingrates, as he hopped off to the bed chamber where Miroku still lay in silence.

Sango watched the flea youkai leave, a thin film of tears covering her eyes and making them shine in the fire light. _Miroku..._ Sango thought miserably to herself, _please just be all right!_

* * *

A while later, Myoga hopped back into the main room and faced the group of friends, who had awaited his return with bated breath. The flea youkai looked up at them all and told them news that brought joy to their hearts the likes of which they had not known for ages:

"Master Miroku still has some poison left in his blood, but he is conscious. I suspect that one more extraction should have him feeling near perfect." The group exploded in cheers and cries of happiness. This was the best news that they could have received, given the circumstances, and as tense as things had been between the group up until now, that was how wonderful they became. Tears of joy, hugs and reassurances that Miroku would be fine passed through them all - even Inuyasha was smiling in spite of himself.

No one, however, had been happier to hear this news than Sango. She was fairly bawling her eyes out, unable to stem the flow of tears that erupted and spilled down over her cheeks. She had stopped being angry with the monk a while ago, despite the fact that she knew it was only a matter of time before he undoubtedly would pull another one of his lecherous stunts.

Quietly, the youkai exterminator left her friends and silently entered the bed chamber to see Miroku lying on the floor, covered in a blanket that Kagome had brought back from her era not too long before. His eyes were closed, but a small noise escaping from him as his chest rose and fell told her that Miroku was snoring.

_At least he's more comfortable now,_ Sango assured herself as she slid the door shut. She would not disturb him; clearly he needed rest and she wanted to be responsible for making sure he got it.

Joining her friends again, Sango told them all in a whisper that Miroku was fast asleep. In response to this, everyone moved outside so as not to disturb him.

Once they had all gathered outside, a silence fell over the group, but this time, it was not an awkward silence. All the disagreements from the day before had been all but forgotten, and now there was only friendliness and good thoughts between the strangely matched group of friends. They all set about various tasks; Shippo decided to go in search of interesting bugs to catch, Inuyasha left quickly by himself to find something for them all to eat, Kagome plopped down to the ground and began to talk animatedly with Kaede about herbal remedies, and Sango decided to go off with Kirara for a walk. After all that had transpired in the last day and a half, she needed to just relax and clear her head.

* * *

Later in the evening, when the sky had finally reached full dark, everyone had returned from their various excursions and had decided to move back into Kaede's hut. The outside temperature was beginning to drop slightly and the cool breeze was making Kagome, Sango and Kaede shiver.

"Keh," Inuyasha muttered under his breath as they made their way inside, "stupid weak humans."

Kagome, who had been standing next to Inuyasha, punched him in the ribs. "I heard that, you know!" she told the hanyou as he rubbed his side. Instead of responding in kind, Inuyasha simply grinned and said nothing. Kagome smiled at him and grasped his clawed hand in hers. While initially surprised by this, Inuyasha smiled fully and did not let go as the two walked into the hut, with Kaede, Sango, Shippo and Kirara (as well as Myoga) following behind. Now it was as plain as day to everyone else, with the exception of Shippo (who, the others were confident, would understand about love someday) exactly what was going on between Inuyasha and Kagome. Kaede and Sango grinned at each other. Shippo just looked confused.

Just as everyone entered the hut, a cough from the bed chamber met their ears.

Everyone dashed to the small room and Inuyasha slid the door open with a bang. There was Miroku, sitting up and coughing slightly, fully conscious.

"Miroku!" Sango screeched, running to the monk's side and kneeling down. Miroku smiled ear-to-ear at the youkai exterminator, happier to see her than he had ever been to see anyone before. When she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, however, he suddenly looked horrifically embarrassed about something and gently pushed her away. "Miroku?" Sango asked, striken, "What is it?"

Miroku opened his mouth as if to speak but immediately clamped it shut again. It appeared that he had no idea what to say. After doing this several times, he finally cleared his throat and, grinning, gave Kaede, Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo and Myoga a very meaningful look. One which said: Get the heck out or I'll _make you_.

Scrambling out of the room as quickly as they could, the others grabbed Inuyasha (who had crossed his arms inside his haori and didn't look as though he had any intention of going anywhere) and dragged him backwards away from the doorframe, sliding it shut behind them as they went.

Once the others had left the room, Miroku grasped Sango's hands in his (which had turned back to a normal colour) and looked into her eyes.

"My dear Sango," the monk began, "what I am about to tell you is the absolute truth. I swear it."

Sango nodded, now completely confused. _Does he honestly think that I'm still angry with him for being a lecher after he came so close to dying like that? Does he even care that he was almost killed?_ she wondered, not saying anything. Miroku inhaled deeply and began to speak.

"I need you to believe me when I say that I never did anything with Hisa, the headman's daughter. It is true that I did go back to the village alone two nights ago in search of food for us, and it is true that I met Hisa, but I never laid a hand on her, Sango. Do you understand?"

_So he _was_ telling the truth about that! _Sango realized, nodding her head once more. She knew that it wouldn't have exactly been unlike Miroku to do lecherous things when provided with the opportunity, but something about the look in his eyes when he spoke, and the desperation in his voice for her to understand him, made her believe him.

"Continue," Sango urged him.

Miroku inhaled again. "I also need you to believe me when I tell you that even though I went back to the village again yesterday afternoon, after you stormed off to your old village, and that despite the fact that I did go for the sole purpose of seeing Hisa again, I never - !"

But exactly what Miroku hadn't done, Sango never found out. Her Hiraikotsu was out in the other room at the moment, so she was unable to use the weapon to inflict any pain on the monk, but she slapped him across the face with such force that he was knocked backwards onto the floor.

"I knew it!" Sango screeched, leaning over him to slap him again.

"Sango, please!" Miroku cried, shielding his face from another attack. "I swear, I didn't touch her!"

But Sango wasn't listening. She continued to hit whichever parts of his body she could reach, wishing to inflict as much damage as she could on the monk with her bare hands. "I actually believed you, you lecherous pig! I forgave you! And this is what you tell me now? That you went back to the village _again_?"

Miroku knew that, by this time, his cries to get Sango's attention were falling on deaf ears. It didn't matter what he told her; it didn't matter that he was only speaking the truth. He sighed, still laying on the ground, and waited for Sango to tire herself out. When she finally did, Miroku sat up slightly and kissed her gently on the lips. Her eyes widened at this action, but to Miroku's immense surprise, she didn't pull back. On the contrary, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him back. She knew that, as infuriating as he could be sometimes, she would always find some way to forgive him.

When the kiss ended, Miroku grinned sheepishly at Sango. "I'm sorry, Sango," he told the youkai exterminator, "I truly am sorry for everything I've done. I know I can be a lecher sometimes, but at the end of the day, there is only one woman in my life that I care enough about to tell her I love her. And that woman is you. I love you."

* * *

The following morning, once Miroku was feeling completely healthy again (and the bruises on his body from Sango's vicious attack on him the previous night, which no longer hurt him, had reached their full colour and intensity), the group said goodbye to Kaede outside her hut and headed off down the path to the next village. Inuyasha and Kagome walked at the head of the group, stride for stride, Shippo took up the middle, and Sango and Miroku brought up the rear, hand in hand, grinning widely, Kirara running along beside them. Myoga, of course, had taken off sometime in the night without a trace.

"I actually have a question," Miroku began, "how long was I unconscious yesterday? And how did we end up at Kaede's? The last thing I remember, I was sitting on Kirara's back with Sango at the temple."

Taking it in turns to explain their different accounts of what had happened after the battle the previous afternoon, the group told Miroku all the details about how he had been poisoned, and how Myoga had come at exactly the right moment and had begun to extract the poison from his body. Then they told him how they had carried him back to Kaede's hut to watch over him until Myoga could remove the rest of the poison. Miroku's heart swelled with affection for every single one of his friends. He smiled ever wider and, when his friends had finished their stories, spoke again:

"Well, I guess it's true what they say: there really is strength in numbers."

* * *

And there you have it, folks! SIN is now officially over. I've really enjoyed writing this story, and a huge thanks again to everyone who reviewed my chapters, or added this fic (or me for that matter), to their "Favourite" anything. You all have no idea how much I appreciate it.

I'm sure I'll be back in the not-too-distant future with another Inuyasha fic, so be on the lookout for that! :) Take it easy, you guys!


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